The radiant light, unhindered and inconceivable, eradicates suffering and brings realization of joy; the excellent Name, perfectly embodying all practices, eliminates obstacles and dispels doubt. This is the teaching and practice for our latter age; devote yourself solely to it. It is eye and limb in this defiled world; do not fail to endeavor in it. Accepting and living the supreme, universal Vow, then, abandon the defiled and aspire for the pure. Reverently embracing the Tathagata's teaching, respond in gratitude to his benevolence and be thankful for his compassion.

~ Shinran Shonin, Passages on the Pure Land Way

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Walking with Rennyo: The Lower Depths of Shinjin

(7) The Lower Depths of Shinjin

Rennyo Shonin one day talked about shinjin to Gansho and Kakuzen, (Matashiro)
from Raga province: “Shinjin is
assurance of rebirth. It is single-mindfulness in relying entirely on Amida
Buddha for favorable birth in the one-moment calling, namuamidabutsu. In spite of many evils they are all eradicated and
dispersed by the power of shinjin at
the very moment of absolute reliance.” Rennyo cited a text and then explained,
“Illusory seeds of karma accumulated from beginningless beginning through
endless round of births on the six paths are obliterated by the wondrous
vow-power of Amida's wisdom at the single-minded reliance in namuamidabutsu. This is the first
flowering of the true cause of ultimate nirvana.” Rennyo, after having spoken,
then summarized this thought on a scroll and gave it to Gansho.

In this Dharma talk to Gansho and Kakuzen, two nembutsu
followers from Raga province, Rennyo Shonin offers perhaps the most succinct
definition of entrusting heart (shinjin) to be found anywhere. Shinjin is
simply “assurance of rebirth.” Rebirth in this case does not mean continued
birth in samsaric states of existence, but rather the “birthless birth” of the
Pure Land, which is the unconditioned realm of Truth that lies beyond our
unenlightened horizon.

Although Nirvana is literally under our noses, we go through
our everyday lives in painful ignorance of it. The purpose of Buddha-Dharma is
to awaken us to the timeless reality of Nirvana; one who is thus awakened is
called a Buddha. Be that as it may, no amount of self-willed awareness will
make up for the fact that we are incapable of realizing Buddhahood in our
present bodies, as Shakyamuni did over 2,500 years ago. Because of this, most people
today assume that enlightenment is immensely difficult, perhaps even impossible, to obtain. This is
not the case, however, if one relies on the power of the Buddha. As Master Shinran
states, “Truly we know that the supreme, perfect fruit of enlightenment is not
difficult to attain; it is pure shinjin, true and real, that is indeed
difficult to realize” (The Collected Works of Shinran, Vol. I, 299).

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the Shinshu teaching
for many people to understand is how a single moment of reliance on the Primal
Vow can effectively cut off our continued existence in samsara. After all, we
have been spending the sum of our past lives mired in delusion, killing and
being killed, bound by our actions to the great wheel of suffering. How could
a mere moment of mindfulness arrest our inexorable turning through the six
realms? However, this is because we do not see the problem of our own birth-and-death
from the Buddha’s point of view. We do not see it with the eye of
enlightenment, the Wisdom-Eye of the Buddha’s unconstrained power and
compassion, but rather with the limited eye of sentient beings imprisoned in
calculation and rational thinking.

Because of this, people give rise to
superstitious and incorrect views regarding the Buddha-Dharma, such as
believing that we can win nirvana through our own efforts, or that after all
the evil we have committed is an insurmountable obstacle to our Pure Land
birth. All of these mistaken ideas are turned upside down, however, when we are
brought through Other-Power to see things the way they really are. In that
moment, that “first flowering,” we truly recognize for the first time that our
nature is not Buddha, that we have no
hope of enlightenment in this or any other lifetime, and that it is because of this, rather than in spite of
it, that we are saved by Amida “just as we are.” As long as we harbor even the
slightest thought of self-powered calculation, our quest to reach the castle of
nirvana will ultimately end in disappointment and failure.

I believe such doubts as the ones I have described arise
because we do not truly comprehend the power of the pure acts performed over
countless eons by Amida Buddha during his sacred career as Bodhisattva
Dharmakara. We cannot begin to fathom the immensity of the merit-store that the
Buddha has painstakingly prepared for our liberation. Unlike the provisional merit of sentient beings, the Buddha's merit is true and real, in full accord with suchness. In comparison with the
boundless light of Amida’s Dharma-body, the pile of karma that we have built is necessarily
reduced to nothing. Master Tan-Luan states in his Commentary on the Treatise, “Suppose there is a room that has been
dark for a thousand years. If light reaches it, however briefly, the room
immediately becomes bright. How can the darkness say that, having occupied the
room for a thousand years, it refuses to leave?" (The Collected Works of Shinran, Vol. I, 146)

However dark our current existence may be, and however deep the
hole of despair we may dig, there is no heart so blackened by evil that
Amida’s light cannot penetrate. The story of Jodo Shinshu is the story of
hopelessly wicked people who, upon encountering the Buddha’s light, were
forever changed. These “hopelessly wicked people” are none other than ourselves. When we hear the timeless truth of Amida’s Vow embodied in His Name, it
echoes in our hearts as shinjin, the true cause of our enlightenment. In that
moment of entrusting, we are brought into
perfect unity with the Dharma that saves. Freed from the fetters of human
calculation, we are carried away by the power of the Primal Vow, and gratitude comes
out of our mouths in the form of Namu Amida Butsu. From that moment on, we
dwell in absolute assurance of our birth in the Pure Land and ultimate
attainment of nirvana, as soon as our present life comes to its natural close.